While washing my wife's XK8 on Sunday afternoon I noticed some tiny black specks on her Atlas chrome wheels that would not scrub off with my usual soap and water. Remembering that I had chrome wire wheels on my 1974 Datsun 260Z (which I finally sold in 1987), I made a mental note to search my garage to see if I still have the can of DuPont Chrome Polish that I used way back in the day to get those wire wheels clean and shiny....

Forgot about it for a few days but remembered it this morning and went looking for it. Found it on a garage shelf behind some old paint cans. It was still about one-third-full with product. Grabbed an old rag, headed out to the XK8, popped the top on the can, and instantly that familiar chemical smell took my mind back to the days of tediously cleaning my Z's wire wheels in the 70s and 80s....

Poured a little chrome cleaner on my rag, began scrubbing away on the XK8 wheels, buffed each wheel with an old towel after finishing each one, and about 30 minutes later all four wheels looked brand-new again....

Kudos to DuPont for selling a cleaning product that still does the job after nearly 40 years of sitting around in its metal can!

 

Jon,

Have you got to the age where you can remember exactly where you left the chrome cleaner in 1987 but can't remember where you put the car keys down ten minutes ago?

Graham

 

I think that may be me as well!

 

I know exactly where my keys are. On the desk of the hotel in Newfoundland where I put them just before I got on the plane home.

 

I checked the distance.



Hope your spare is working.

Graham

 

I found a great old school chrome cleaning product. We used to call it "wadding" and it is a chemically doused loose cotton type cloth that you can tear into little pieces to work over chrome or any other metal.

Today it's called "Nevr-Dull" from Eagle One (Eagle One Automotive Appearance Products)

It's about $4 for an old time metal can with the wadding in it. It easily brought the oxidized chrome on my rescue Harley back to life. It is also fantastic on silver.

 

That Nevr-Dull stuff is great and I forgot I even had this. I originally bought it some years a go when I had my Corvette. When you opened up the clamshell hood everything was pretty visible and there were a bunch of aluminum parts like the wishbone arms that you could see. These would get grungy and dirty and the best way to clean and polish them up, along with any of the other silvery parts and pieces, was with Nevr-Dull. I'll have to try that on my chrome exhaust tips.

Doug

 

Wow! On my VW Karmann Ghia I used the never dull and mothers cream polish on the chrome pieces and my custom wheels. Whew, I used to spend hours cleaning those wheels... nostalgia!

 

I checked my garage when I got home, I have two containers of DuPont chrome cleaner, One in a metal can (80s) and one in plastic (90s) also 1/2 can of chrome wadding. A proper car guy never throws anything away. I also found a smooth bore Mikuni carburetor possibly from a 78 Yamaha. And the hotel is sending my keys by courier. First rule of being over 50, give your wife the extra set of keys.

 

Graham,

No short-term memory issues yet. That is, except for the intentional ones designed to keep me from doing yet another ridiculous chore my wife has dreamed up. The latest one was disassembling, painting, and reassembling two living room lamps. The bases and fixtures were silver. She decided they needed to be pewter. After several hours of tedious work, I still couldn't see the difference in color after finishing the job. But she claims the lamps now match the rest of the room. I'll be damned if I know how....

 

Jon,

I've learned never to offer opinions on decor - it's a Lose-Lose situation.

Graham

 

Take it from an eye doc....never argue with a woman about color. (And, not in my field, but their hearing is alot better too, especially if it's about them.)